Global Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Market Report, published by Variant Market Research, forecast that the global market is expected to reach $530 million by 2024 from $312 million in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2016 to 2024. By geography, Asia-pacific and Rest of the world (RoW) are expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% and 6.9%, respectively, during the forecast period.

Rise in demand for ion beam lithography, increased demand for failure analysis equipment, and increased application of focused ion beam systems in sample preparation are the major factors driving the global focused ion beam market. However, high cost of focused ion beam systems would restrain the market growth in coming years. Product innovation would provide several growth opportunities for the market in coming years.

The global focused ion beam market is categorised by ion beam sources and application. By ion beam sources, the market is segmented into iridium, gallium, gold and others. By application, the market is further divided into sample preparation, nanofabrication, and others. By ion beam sources, gallium dominated the market in 2016, accounting for more than half of the total market size, driven by its extensive usage as a liquid ion source for high resolution, focused ion beam imaging, depth profiling, nanofabrication, and ion beam lithography. The iridium segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period owing to being an important alloying agent. Furthermore, the sample preparation segment accounted for the largest market share in the overall application segment in 2016.

The focused ion beam market by geography is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and RoW. Europe accounted for the largest market share of 37.1% in 2016, owing to high penetration of focused ion beam microscopes in the field of material science. North America accounted for the second largest market share of 31.0%, driven by rise in application of focused ion beam in the research and astronomy, material science, and others. Asia-Pacific is to attain the fastest CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period 2016-2024. The growth would be primarily driven by high concentration of semiconductor companies in emerging countries such as China, Taiwan, South Korea and India coupled with increased penetration of nanotechnology in countries such as Japan.